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Cayman Islands Welcomes IMF Review,
by Phillip Morton, Investors Offshore.com
Monday, December 14, 2009
The International Monetary Fund has observed "substantial progress"
by the Cayman Islands with regards financial sector regulation in its latest report on the jurisdiction.
Progress areas identified include changes to legislation, rules and guidance
to meet international standards, increases in the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority’s
(CIMA) independence, resources and efficiency, as well as increased transparency
of the funds sector arising from the implementation of CIMA’S electronic
reporting system. The report makes recommendations for enhancements in 10 areas
but acknowledges that these recommendations “are broadly consistent with
the priorities already identified by the authorities and in most cases where
policy action is already underway.”
The report is based mainly on information obtained during the IMF’s
March 2-13 mission to the Cayman Islands, and on subsequent consultations with
CIMA. The mission’s purpose was to review developments in Cayman’s
supervisory and regulatory framework since the first assessment in October 2003.
These jurisdictional reviews are part of the IMF’s offshore financial sector
assessment program.
Given the global financial crisis, a major new focus of the mission during
this year’s assessment was risk identification and mitigation. The recommendations
emphasize these aspects as part of the strengthening of Cayman’s regulatory
and supervisory system, while recognizing that it “has important elements
of an effective crisis management framework.”
The report assesses CIMA’s powers, resources, and risk management framework;
the supervision and regulation of banking, insurance, and investment funds and
securities (including the role of the Cayman Stock Exchange); and comments on
the private sector pension system. The document also summarizes the findings
of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force’s 2007 review of Cayman’s
regime for anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism.
Cayman Premier, McKeeva Bush, welcomed the report: “Once again we have
an external assessment that gives evidence of this jurisdiction’s commitment
to providing sound regulation in line with the best international standards.
We voluntarily participated in this assessment and welcome any others that are
objective as we are confident that our financial industry and the supervisory
regime can stand up to any scrutiny. The government broadly accepts the recommendations
and it is our intention to give priority to implementing them in a timely manner,
as far as best serves this jurisdiction and contributes to the stability of
the global financial system.”
CIMA’s Chairman, George McCarthy, said the report “reflects the
high standards that CIMA strives to meet and the seriousness with which the
Authority takes its role.”
Cindy Scotland, Managing Director of CIMA, agreed: “International regulatory
and supervisory standards change as global financial business evolves and as
new risks emerge. As regulator, we always have to be doing our own assessments
and adjustments and engage our regulatory counterparts, industry, and international
standard setters to ensure we keep abreast and contribute to these developments.
I therefore find the IMF’s recommendations very valuable.”
The main recommendations contained in the IMF report are to:
strengthen the legislative structure for the independence
of CIMA, beginning with passage of the pending draft amendments to the Monetary
Authority Law;
conduct a formal risk assessment and
focus CIMA’s supervisory efforts more directly on the key risks facing
the jurisdiction, such as operational and reputation risk;
formalize and validate the assumptions underlying CIMA’s
supervisory approach that relies on the strength of supervision applied elsewhere
and the contribution of licensees and other domestic professionals to the
oversight of financial intermediaries;
formulate a robust framework for supervising
licensees cross-border and cross-sectorally to help prevent regulatory arbitrage
or supervisory gaps;
draw up contingency plans to handle the failure of important
institutions;
make CIMA’s enforcement powers consistent across
all administered legislation and set the monetary penalties high enough to
make them effective and dissuasive;
review the human resource budgeting policy and reassess
the process regularly to ensure the continued adequacy and quality of regulatory
resources;
monitor international developments to ensure that the regulatory
regime in the jurisdiction incorporates elements of international best practice
as it evolves;
enhance regulatory reporting and disclosure requirements
of financial entities; and
implement a risk-based solvency regime for the insurance industry.
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